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People, not buildings,
hold a city’s vitality
Re: “Don’t ruin historic neighborhoods to solve California’s housing crisis” (Page A6, Dec. 21).
It’s disingenuous to say, “Without historic preservation, we would have no Palace of Fine Arts, no Alamo Square, no Tonga Room, no Alcatraz and no Paramount Theater.” Without working-class people, those wouldn’t exist — but presently, those who build those buildings cannot afford to live where they are; to live in the places they serve; to enjoy those things as I and others who are privileged to be able to afford to live here do.
There’s strength in diversity and new people. If you like your neighborhood, you should want others to be able to experience it as you do — tis the season to share the joy.
Preserving neighborhoods is exclusionary and shortsighted because change is inevitable. Black people who grew up in the Fillmore can no longer afford to live there. Increasing housing in historic urban neighborhoods can change that. Rich heritage lives on not in how buildings look, but in the people.
Lizzie Siegle
San Francisco
Hamas war another
step to defend empire
Remember King Herod fearing the power of a baby born in Bethlehem and ordering the killing of all babies under 2 years old? Joseph and Mary take their baby Jesus to safety in Egypt.
Today parents take their babies to southern Gaza, seeking safety in Egypt. And Prime Minister Netanyahu kills 8,000 children.
Does Netanyahu fear the power of Palestinian children growing into a new regime of liberation?
The power behind Herod was the Roman Empire. The president I voted for is the emperor who props up today’s leaders of Israel. My president weakly pleads for Netanyahu to be more careful in his murders while sending weapons of murder.
We are not running with Jesus, Mary and Joseph to a new order of liberation for all Jews, all Palestinians, all people. We elect our leaders to defend the empire. We have the blood of 8,000 children on our hands.
Peter Klotz-Chamberlin
Santa Cruz
What is end game of
U.S. support for Israel?
Re: “Attacks by Israel approach a grim mark” (Page A1, Dec. 22).
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Given the tremendous death toll, President Biden must demand that Benjamin Netanyahu cease the massive aerial attacks, which are estimated to have caused 20,000 deaths. While they damage Hamas, they reveal an immoral attitude about human life. Hamas has members in Lebanon, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey. Netanyahu’s claim to “destroy Hamas” is only a campaign slogan. The stain of such slaughter of civilians will last indefinitely. That stain is bleeding on us for our active support. The stain has bled to Jewish synagogues throughout the globe. Local synagogues have had to add security.
Our military support for Israel was to support a secular, democratic society in the Middle East. In the 1973 Yom Kipper War, Nixon provided fighter jets for Israel to fight back those that had invaded its borders. Both Democrats and Republicans are willing to provide weapons support to Israel, but to what end?
Gary Latshaw
Cupertino
